The view from the library

One of Shrewsbury's biggest activities for tourists is the legendary Charles Darwin drinking game. You see, Charles Darwin was born here, and newcomers to the town are expected to take a shot every time they're reminded of this fact during their stay in Shrewsbury. For many that seems to be the towns only selling point, but some will argue that the teat is overmilked at the expense of many other things that Shrewsbury can be proud of. While the Darwin Shopping Centre is the most prominent, we also have a place called "Darwins Sandwich Evolution" and "DarWIN Solicitors" who accentuate the part of their name that suggests victory. Or rather, the part of Darwins name that suggests victory.

Outside the town library is our holy shrine to Our Lord and Master, Charlie D. During the production of the "Christmas in Shrewsbury" video I had the wonderful task of climbing this shrine to wipe bird excrement off His Holinesses noggin, and wrap him in a nice little scarf. I also got to operate the snow machine.

And it is the library that I want to focus on today, but how better to introduce this than by mocking a man who's done nothing to me, and has made a name for himself by completely revolutionising humanities perception of its origin? I'm just jealous really. I want my own statue, dammit. That's all I want!

The library happens to be where Charlie D allegedly went to school. Today it's a massive chunk of architectural eye candy. But one thing that baffles me is the presence of the two sundials at right angles to each other, as they make mighty inadequate time keeping devices. The cinema on stilts in the square has one too.

The library dates back to 1550 and was a school right up until 1882. It was originally a timber framed building, some of which can still be seen around the back, but stone extensions were added in the early 1600s, which also included a chapel, and additional classrooms. Upstairs is a sea of vintage vandalism from the former students.

I know, that's what I thought it said too, for a moment.

In 1885, it opened as a library and remained as such until 1976 when it had a very widespread restoration. It reopened in 1983 and has been open as a library ever since.

And for a long time I wanted to see the view from the tower. Back in the day, in my early years as an explorer, I was part of a four person posse of rooftoppers, and together we conquered the majority of Shrewsburys rooftops and saw the town from every angle imaginable, but the library among others such as the castle, were held to very high regard as places we'd never get to but it would be so cool if we could. And as the writer of Shrewsbury From Where You Are Not, this websites growth in notoriety has awarded me the right connections to get up there. This is a proud moment. Each and every one of my readers is awesome. Thank you for helping me get this far. This blog is as much yours as it is mine now. Especially since a load of you paid for my camera!

Who is laughing now, Charles???

My only regret is that my old posse couldn't join me, on this or any recent adventure. One lives in Newcastle now, and another is on a bike ride around Europe. The last one actually lives across the road from me, but he's settled down with the girl of his dreams. I'd do that too, but Margaret Thatchers granddaughter still doesn't know I exist.

The library tower interior is also of photogenic value, including a sexy clock mechanism, old doors, and mysterious passages into the interior of the rest of the roof.

The upper floor appeared to be a dumping ground for any relics left over from the restorations of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Anything they couldn't restore, or couldn't find a purpose for, was left up here. And what could be a better relic to find in the attic than a collection of disembodied heads and a mysterious wheel?

This bearded statue has been quite literally defaced. *cue tumbleweed*

Onto the view itself, I was very fortunate that the weather was great, and I could see for miles, and also take in the complete mish-mash of architectural styles that Shrewsbury is, while also marveling at all my previous explorative conquests. For navigation purposes, the photos are arranged in a counter-clockwise order.

Seriously, click a picture to see it big! 

 That thing covered in scaffolding I explored in the mobile phone days, and so didn't get nearly as good an article as I could.

The white blob on the horizon is the water tower at Severn Trent. The rather ugly, yet fun to climb Theatre Severn is in shot.

The white pillar on the horizon is Shrewsbury hospital. 

 Here you can just see St Chads church popping up over the modern aesthetic monstrosity that is the super-fun Rat Run. And barely visible is also the Market Clocktower.

The closest church spire is St Mary's church. The one beyond that is St Alkmunds. Just to the right is Barclays. And on the very edge of the left hand side of the shot is a house I explored when it was under restoration.

These buildings are gorgeous. Far in the distance you can see the Abbey and the Lord Hill Column. 

And here's the castle, flying the Union Jack, as is the smaller but still architecturally interesting train station. The castle doesn't fly the flag from the middle of the tower, due to the fact that the building is so old that the flag blowing in the middle was actually causing the walls of the tower to slowly spread apart. And so they fly it from the side of the tower instead.

As well as having an amazing view, the architecture of the library itself is still impressive, all the way up here, with massive spires on every corner. 

But much to my delight, there was ancient graffiti even up here.

The interior of the library that is publically accessible is still really photogenic, although I've been told that this is all a copy of the original ceiling, that was made in the restoration when the original was far too damaged to maintain. The head sculpts certainly shed some light on the heads in the tower!

In another inaccessible part of the library is this awesome patterned wood, which is apparently present in other parts of the library too, and possibly even other parts of Shrewsbury. But it is here, in a portion of the library nobody can get to that the architect left his own sculpted self portrait.

Check him out. He looks like a Disney villain!
And it just goes to show, in historic towns with buildings that date back to the times when architects had imagination and gave a shit about their work, one must always remember to look up!

Thank you for reading. If you have any information, memories or stories about any of the places I explore and feature on this blog, feel free to contact me via social media. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and add me on Facebook. In the meantime, if there's any part of Shropshire thats secret, forgotten, or abandoned that I have no desire to see, it's only because I already have.

Pitchford Hall

In the last entry, I got underneath the famous Prince Rupert Hotel, achieving something I have wanted to do for years. Prince Rupert stayed there during the civil war, when Shrewsbury was a royalist stronghold, and as we should hopefully all know, the royalists lost. Shrewsbury fell through treachery, with the enemy let in via the water lane, which is why the restaurant at the top is named Traitors Gate. It's also why Shrewsbury has the most intact castle in Shropshire. Prince Rupert allegedly survived, and fled to the southern reaches of Shropshire, to the village of Pitchford, where he took refuge in a subterranean tunnel beneath the grounds of a place now known as Pitchford Hall.

*cue dramatic music*

 Legal disclaimer:
Now I just want to make it clear that I do NOT force entry when I explore these places. Nor do I vandalize, steal, or disclose means of access to other people.
Trespass without forced entry is a civil offence, not a criminal one, which isn't worth acting on unless one causes damage, steals, has ill intent, etc. I simply photograph and leave everything as I find it. I do not commit or condone any acts of breaking and entering, and I do not condone what I do either as it's very dangerous and I'm a danger to myself and a terrible role model.
And I still don't disclose means of access. Just in case it wasn't clear enough.

Pitchford Hall was built in the 1560s by William Ottley, the Sheriff of Shropshire, although certain parts of its west wing do contain remnants of an older mansion that was built in 1272, and lived in by Geoffrey de Pykeford, who also built a church on the property, which was sold in the 1330s to repay debts.
Following the construction by William Ottley, the house remained in their family until 1807 when it passed on the 3rd Earl of Liverpool, Charles C C Jenkinson, and later to his son-in-law, James Cotes. James son, Charles, commissioned a man named George Devey to have the place brought up to Victorian standards, which included the installation of running water. When Charles died, the house passed on to his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Grant, and then onto the Colthurst family.
 

Some of the big names to stay at Pitchford Hall have included the most Victorian of all Victorians, Big Vick herself, who, in 1832 when she was just a princess, stayed here and watched the hunt from a treehouse on the grounds. In 1935 the Duke of York at the time, later George VI, stayed there with his wife, and in World War II, Pitchford Hall was one of the places selected for King George, Queen Elizabeth, and the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, to relocate to if things got too hairy.

The house was disused as of 1992, when numerous financial strains forced the owners to sell the entire estate which now has been divided between multiple owners, although the mansion remains empty. Numerous precautions have been taken to keep out trespassers, including Dracula  the ever present Big Brother.

*GASP* Not Big Brother!!! What am I going to do???

In case you haven't guessed, I actually hid from Big Brother inside the building that they're guarding, which seemed logical since all the cameras were pointing outwards. I'm truly addicted, I know. But whats the point in living if it's not to be enjoyed? And besides, isn't everyone glad that Shropshire has its very own miscreant adventurer?

Let's just look at the exterior a little bit. This place really has a lot.

The interior was brilliant, and truly showed its age in its architecture. However this place has changed a lot over the years in accordance to various changes in tastes. But just check this place out. It's amazing!

Not surprisingly, Pitchford Hall has its fair share of ghost stories. Former residents are said to haunt the hallways, occasionally as apparitions but more commonly as the scent of the cigarettes smoked by one in particular. I experienced nothing.

As I made my way around the mansion, I found that a lot of effort had gone into ensuring some doors couldn't be opened. They weren't all locked, although those that were had more than one way of getting to the places that they led to. The strange thing was, all of the furniture barricades were in blocking the way I was going rather than the way I was coming from, so it was child's play to move things out of the way and then put them back when I was done.

I was quite struck by the rooms. They were gigantic, and well designed, and once lived in by people far richer than me.

This fireplace is taller than me, which given that I'm a six feet two inch tower, is quite impressive.

I'd heard rumours of a secret doorway in this building but I'd also noticed this place get mistaken for Brogyntyn Hall a lot online, which had a bookcase door. So I wasn't entirely sure this place would actually have one, but sure enough it did at the back of this cupboard.

How awesome is that???

I think this red room is in the servants quarters, and it seems to be the place where people seemingly working on the place left all their things before going for a break.

And that's quite a break they're having.

Moving upstairs, I found that all the bedrooms were labeled alphabetically. Bedroom B was the first one I found, and it was about the size of my flat with a really impressive fireplace sculpt.

The place got just a little more humbling when I found that Bedroom A was twice the size of Bedroom B.

The newspaper is dated September 7, 1990.

Most of the other upstairs rooms were samey in style, although the colour scheme was as varied as a bag of skittles.

 This room had a central pillar with two fireplaces on either side.

The further I explored, the smaller the rooms became and I decided that these were probably the servants quarters.

 I took this next picture solely for the lone floral tile there. 

In the servant area there was also a kitchen. 

And here's a servant bell board.

The mansion had a lovely spacious attic with some of the most delightfully uneven floors I've ever encountered. It was mostly pitch black up here. It's also where the building truly shows its age.

And look at this amazing photo! Click it to see it big. My camera flash must have startled a bat and it's spreading its wings and taking flight. Now, I was quite unaware of it at the time, and it must have whooshed past me swiftly and silently, and I only realized it was there when I got home and found that I'd captured it on camera.

And here is a bell, which apparently dates back to the 1600s. 

I'm not sure why there's a fireplace in the attic but here it is.

And then of course there is the cellar. I'm not sure if this ever linked to the secret passage beneath the estate where Prince Rupert hid, but it was still cool and cavernous.

The church on the grounds was locked up, although I've been told it's still in use. The underground passage eluded me. There is also a natural well, or "pitch" which Pitchford takes its name from, and I found a number of bodies of water that this could have been. Sadly when out of the actual mansion I had to be sneaky because some of the buildings in the vicinity were in use. But one feature I couldn't resist was the treehouse.

Allegedly this is the oldest treehouse in the world, although I'm sure there are other contenders out there. It was built in the same style as the main mansion, presumably at the same time. And it was from this treehouse that thirteen year old Princess (later Queen) Victoria watched the hunt across the fields. I'd followed in her footsteps but all I was watching was my own back, in case of discovery. The treehouse was locked, but its interior was visible.

And that about sums up Pitchford Hall. I'm sad that the secret tunnel escaped my notice, but overall it was a very fun adventure. Please don't ask me how I got in. I won't tell you.

But I would love to hear any stories, memories or additional information about this place, or any of the places featured on the ever increasingly inaccurately titled "Shrewsbury from where you are not" so feel free to get in touch and follow me on various forms of social media-

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Thanks for reading!